I created this blog site to expose the scam artists, crooks, and their tactics that prey on honest hard working people on craigslist. I encourage you to share your stories and experiences with other people so that we may better serve the craigslist community, by making it a safer place.

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How to Spot a Scam

Friday, September 26, 2008

Craigslist Scammer Reported to FBI

This month yours truly has been working with the FBI to track Craigslist scam artist "Lauretta Coronado." This person has also posted scams under different names, but the IP address originates from the same location. Thanks to everyone who has supplied info, I will keep you all updated as this progresses.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

While on Craigslist, I found an ad looking for an English tutor. I replied and today received a reply from "Emmanuel perry" (his e-mail address is Bonjelevel00@aol.com) who has a "15-year-old daughter." He asked for my full name, address, phone numbers, etc." Also, he said I would receive a check in excess of my fee. I am to cash this check and send the remainder to the nanny and taxi driver. I have not responded. I subsequently found a lot of info about tutoring scams. Is this the same person who was reported to the FBI?

Not sure where I should go to get the word out about tinawils2@gmail.com / tinawils12@hotmail.com (Tina Williams). They respond to item ads with a *Mostly* correct email, so I didn't flag it right away as a scam, then if you have the item they ask if they can paypal you the money for it + and extra 150, to ship it to their brother. Fishy, no? A google search for the email addresses showed nothing for one, and one result in someone's unsecured webmail server for the other email (hotmail one) which was identical word-for-word to their interactions with me, hence I can rule them as 100% scammer, not just as an odd person.Any info on lists of these scammers emails where I can ad this one would be nice.

I posted an ad on craigslist to sell a credenza for $199 in Brooklyn. After an email from this guy (his email address is: hu.james7@gmail.com) saying that he wanted the piece and would send money to me right away to hold it, I assumed it was a real sale. When the check came, it was a check for $2,000. I wrote to this person and said that I wasn't sure why the check amount was so large and asked if there was a mistake. I was going to rip up the check and have him send a new one. He then asked if I could do him a favor and pay the mover for him since he was away on business. He had not mentioned this before. For my trouble, he'd pay $300 for the credenza. It sounded odd so I spoke to Chase Bank about it before depositing the check. They said, that as long as the check clears, he can't cancel the check after I send money to the mover. So I wrote the guy again and said, "this is a real pain for me, but I am willing to do it AFTER the check clears" of course, the check bounced and the days leading up to that he asked me a few times if I'd wired the money to the mover yet. I would like to report this to the FBI because I have all his emails and the address in which he wanted me to wire the "mover's money" to along with his story on why he wanted me to do this. I got charged for the bounced check, but I am also concerned that this is a way to steal people's identity. Is that possible?

The same just happened to me regarding an item I am selling on ebay. This person wanted to send an extra $150 to ship it to her "brother" and needed my assistance because she is out of the country...I googled her email address and found this blog. Glad I did.

I was selling an item on Craigslist and the email was tinawils2@gmail.com , Google hit on this blog for that email is probably a scam. Thank goodness for the good parts of the internet. I know it will be probably impossible to catch any of these crooks, but wanted to let anyone know, this person is still trying to scam via PayPal. I had heard what they do is tell you to send your paypal ID to them so they can pay you with a stolen credit card, then they have you ship to an unconfirmed address, which is probably in their "network" of thieves in the US, and then the creditcard they used does a chargeback to your Paypal account when it is found to be fraudulent. You are out your item, and may have to pay the Credit Card or paypal back for the charge back. So very sneaky. Makes me angry when honest people can't even have fun selling stuff on the internet. Email spam stinks too!

Rules of CraigsList I live by, only deal with Cash, in person. If they don't buy from "You" don't sell it. It may be legit, but probably 9 times out of 10 it is a scam.

Here is my wonderful text from the email "Tina" sent me:I will like to buy it for my brother and will need your assistance in shipping it to him because i am not in the country right now but i hope it's in a good condition.I will pay you through PayPal and will be adding an extra of $150 which i am sure will cover the shipping expenses.If you have an account with Paypal, just send me a money request of the total amount to my paypal email,tinawils2@gmail.com so i can send the money.If you don't have one,you can go to www.paypal.com and easily sign up for a personal account since it's free,need your reply soon.Thanks.